Here goes nothing.

I want to round up 20 people or so and groove to this song (Hey) in a dark sweaty cramped room for a few hours, eyes down. Anyone in?

We could put on some Felix Da Housecat after a while.

Well I can't come up with a very poignant way to communicate this, but last night was the most surreal night of my life. After the Explosions in the Sky show I've been wanting to say something on here about beauty, life, youth, creativity, vitality and all that, and how totally important I think it all is. And also how right it is sometimes to just sit still, close your eyes, and breathe deep. But I can't say it like I think it (and I can't think it like I feel it).

Last night Sigur Rós completely destroyed us in this gorgeous golden classical performance hall. They had a gigantic translucent screen in front of the stage for the beginning and end and they would project themselves on it as silhouettes, like 15 feet tall. Man, they were giants. Totally breathtaking.

Then around 1am that night, coming back to our car after dinner, there they were - chipped teeth and kind of bug-eyed - standing outside their tour bus. With an acoustic guitar and a banjo. There were like three other people around. We stood there in absolute disbelief for a little while, then they started motioning for us to join in (I am not making this up). We went over there and started clapping, singing, and whooping along to this funny little country song they were playing. No way, man. I keep thinking this was a dream, but Matt wrote about it on his Xanga too so it must have actually happened.

Excellent Videos:

Last :40 of their 2006 NA tour. Mind blowing.
Goofing around and making music with Sigur-freaking-Rós

//

P.S. I got a mohawk. The past 12 hours have been weird.

youguysyouguysyouguysyouguysyouguys:

life is sooooooo good

epic:

//like steel from a furnace

If you haven't gotten enough spinning and flying around watching the downhill skiing and snowboarding on TV for the last few days, you can get even more tommorrow night at the Opolis. Thaaattt's right, breakdancing at the Opolis.
The Neighborhood will be spreading some love around after a set by Ft. Worth band Modico. In between the band sets there'll be breakdancers. Smoother than a curling rock.
While I haven't heard a lot from Modico personally, they have been around north Texas for enough years to have developed a tight sound, unique and fresh as it is accessible and entertaining. Slightly bold without being cocky, Modico should be a fun opener for local heros, The Neighborhood.


Modico sounds ~
Beneath the Clouds
Vertigo
Heartbeat

encore Neighborhood music~
China Boy
Drowning in Seconds
Looking Back

//

(www.memo57.blogspot.com)

Sooners Rock
Students started a band for leisure, but found a career

by Kelly Kuntz
January 27, 2006

In the faint light, a haze of smoke is visible. The floor crowds quickly. People mill around, waving at familiar faces. Over the dull roar of voices and background music, the band can be heard setting up. People check their watches as they edge closer and closer to the stage. The house lights flicker and dim. The dance floor erupts into movement as the band on stage launches into their first chords.

It’s a Friday night in Norman.

"I think that right now, there is no better time to be playing music in Norman. I feel like the music scene is really taking off,” said Matt Duckworth, communication junior and drummer for The Neighborhood, a local band that has roots in Edmond and Tulsa. “It’s a really great place to be musically, because there are a lot of opportunities and there are so many great bands challenging us.”

Together for a year and a half as The Neighborhood, Duckworth, philosophy junior Eric Mai and letters junior Philip Rice met at OU.

They have already recorded their first demo,The Beginnings and Endings, with producer Carl Amburn at Norman’s Mousetrap Studios. The band has sold about 400 records at their shows and on their Web site, www.theneighborhoodlovesyou.com. What started as a leisure activity has evolved into a way of life and a potential career.

"The band started out as a fun thing and it has gotten more and more serious as we go,” Duckworth said. “After we get our fallback degrees here, I think we are going to try and give it a shot for a couple of years. We’ll see what happens with the band, concentrating on our music and making that our job.”

Guitarist Mai describes The Neighborhood’s sound as progressive, yet accessible. With roots in ’70s rock, Mai said his musical background has influenced his ideas and performance.

"I was really heavy into classic rock up until college. I was a huge Rush fan,” Mai said. “That has definitely had an influence on the way that I think about songs, even though now I listen to a lot more melodic, melody-driven pop music."

The Flaming Lips 'Zaireeka' Experience
OU students got together this weekend to test a ‘Lips’ album of unique layering

By Calvin Son
February 05, 2006

There were colorful flashing lights, loud music and a disco ball, but nobody was dancing. There were three bottles of Jarritos, pastries and a lemon birthday cake, but nobody was eating. At this party, 20 students huddled together in a storm of shrieks, barks and rumbles blaring from four different directions as they sat quietly, staring into space.

The Flaming Lips’ 1997 album “Zaireeka” was the centerpiece for the listening party that took place Feb. 4 in the apartment of Eric Mai, civil engineering junior.

“I’m using [my birthday] as an excuse to throw a Zaireeka party,” Mai said.

The 40-minute, eight-track Warner Bros. album featured four separate CDs that must be played simultaneously.

“More than anything, it just makes you feel uneasy,” said Mai, who dual-wielded Facebook and his cell phone to invite his friends. “It’s a noise experiment that’s a conversation between four CD players.”

According to www.flaminglips.com, Lips frontman Wayne Coyne was tired of songs with easily identifiable influences.

“Well, now no one can say that we’re doing anything that’s been done before,” Coyne stated.

Mai used four amplifiers, four portable CD players, three friends and good-humored patience to cue the CDs. After a few false starts, listeners were treated to an aural jumble including drums circling the room, high-pitched screams and lyrics that mentioned everything from dogs to a “bleeding vagina.”

Matt Duckworth, communications junior, had heard the album five times but said the experience was different every time due to the different speeds of CD players.

“It’s like hearing the loudest, softest, most beautiful, scariest, weird, most normal thing all at the same time,” he said. “Every now and then there were magical moments where they locked up. It was loud and good.”

Mai said he considered playing the albums through four iPods to have consistent playing speeds but decided to keep it “old school.”

“A lot of the fun of it is synching it up,” he said. “It’s better than watching TV or something.”

Alex Shafer, Oklahoma State University freshman and fan of the Flaming Lips, heard the album for his first time.

“It just sounded so amazing,” he said. “Anyone who hasn’t done it should try it at least once.”

Mai said he plans on hosting more listening parties every three weeks.

“Zaireeka doesn’t really have memorable melodies,” Mai said. “My goal in doing this is to shake up the college campus in Norman and get people more interested in music.”

The listening session ended with applause and without any appearances from the OU police department. Guests socialized, ate and looked through the album tracklist that identified the first track as the appropriately titled “Okay I’ll Admit That I Don’t Really Understand.”

Maddie Barker, letters senior, said she would want to listen to the album again though it was not as exciting as she anticipated.

“I wouldn’t listen to it under the influence of alcohol,” she said. “Some of it is pretty creepy.”